This invention relates generally to automotive roof systems and more particularly to a latch for an automotive vehicle having a convertible roof.
Rigid hard-top convertible roofs have been used on a variety of automotive vehicles. Some of these conventional convertible hard-top roofs are stored in a generally vertical orientation and some are stored in a predominantly horizontal orientation. Furthermore, some of these conventional hard-top roofs fold in a clamshelling manner while others are collapsible in an overlapping manner. Examples of traditional hard-top convertible roofs are disclosed in the following patents: U.S. Pat. No. 6,347,828 entitled “Actuation Mechanism for a Two Piece Retractable Hard-Top Roof for an Automobile” which issued to Rapin et al. on Feb. 19, 2002; U.S. Pat. No. 6,318,793 entitled “Two Piece Retractable Hard-Top Roof for an Automobile” which issued to Rapin et al. on Nov. 20, 2001; U.S. Pat. No. 5,979,970 entitled “Roof Assembly for a Convertible Vehicle” which issued to Rothe et al. on Nov. 9, 1999; U.S. Pat. No. 5,785,375 entitled “Retractable Hard-Top for an Automotive Vehicle” which issued to Alexander et al. on Jul. 28, 1998; U.S. Pat. No. 5,769,483 entitled “Convertible Motor Vehicle Roof” which issued to Danzl et al. on Jun. 23, 1998; U.S. Pat. No. 5,743,587 entitled “Apparatus for Use in an Automotive Vehicle having a Convertible Roof System” which issued to Alexander et al. on Apr. 28, 1998; and EPO Patent Publication No. 1 092 580 A1 which was published on Apr. 18, 2001. The U.S. patents are incorporated by reference herein.
Various tonneau cover latches are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,678,881 entitled “Apparatus and Method for Securing a Convertible Roof to an Automotive Vehicle” which issued to Tokarz on Oct. 21, 1997; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,267,769 entitled “Manually Operable Folding Top for Vehicles using Automatic-Ejection Snap-Action Closures” which issued to Bonne et al. on Dec. 7, 1993; both of which are incorporated by reference herein. While the Tokarz latches are significant improvements in the industry, many known devices may not necessarily be well suited for use in extremely difficult to package areas along the quarter panel of a vehicle. Furthermore, the tonneau cover and convertible roof may be locked into lowered positions if the electrical power is not working with most, if not all, prior automatically powered latching devices.
In accordance with the present invention, a latching system for an automotive vehicle having a convertible roof is provided. In another aspect of the present invention, front and/or rear convertible roof sections are rigid, hard-top roofs. A further aspect of the present invention provides that the outside surfaces of retractable roofs have a generally vertical orientation when in their open and retracted positions. In yet another aspect of the present invention, a latch secures a generally rigid tonneau cover. A latch is extremely thin in cross-car size for packaging adjacent a quarter panel of a vehicle, in still another aspect of the present invention. A further aspect of the present invention provides a manual override for an automatically powered latch. Another aspect of the present invention uses a rigid tonneau cover, a tonneau cover linkage mechanism, a movable closeout panel, and a cable drive, which serve to cover a roof storage space and the roof storage space does not obstruct a trunk or storage bed area of a vehicle. In a further aspect of the present invention, a method of using a latch is also provided.
The latching system of the present invention is advantageous over conventional systems in that the present invention minimizes the stored roof packaging area by tightly collapsing one roof section relative to the other. The present invention convertible roof system is also advantageous since it can be retracted with minimal, if any, intrusion in the passenger compartment area of the vehicle while also storing the roof forward of a user accessible storage area, such as a trunk or pickup truck bed. The latch of the present invention is advantageous over prior devices by having an extremely thin cross-car size which is packaged in a very tight quarter panel area. Moreover, another significant advantage is the ability to manually override the automatic actuator in order to release or latch the tonneau cover in the event of a power failure. Additional advantages and features of the present invention will become apparent from the following description and appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.